A 45-year-old woman is at the clinic for a mental health assessment. When giving her the Four Unrelated Words Test, the nurse would be concerned if the patient:
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: The correct answer is C because the inability to recall four unrelated words after a 30-minute delay indicates potential issues with short-term memory retention, which is concerning for cognitive impairment or memory disorders. This delay allows for the consolidation of memory, so failure at this point suggests a more significant problem compared to immediate recall.
A: Not being able to give four unrelated words within 5 minutes may indicate some difficulty, but it does not necessarily indicate a severe issue as more time is typically allowed for this task.
B: Inability to give four unrelated words within 30 seconds could be due to various factors such as anxiety or processing speed, but it does not necessarily indicate a memory issue.
D: Not being able to recall four unrelated words after a 60-minute delay is expected to be more challenging than a 30-minute delay, so this alone does not raise as much concern as failing the 30-minute delay test.